Thursday, March 11, 2010

Awhile back I started the 'Things I'm Planning on Stealing from my Parents' House' group on Flickr. Ohai this group takes on a new meaning when you are cleaning out your parents' house, the one your family has lived in since 1965, in preparation for a life changing move out of state. I'm trying to remain upbeat about it, but I'm not gonna lie, this feels like emotional roulette. Which emotion are we dialing up today--grief, fear, rage, or resentment? Depends on how many Craigslist freaks are deciding they want to actually show to on any given day to get their free stuff. Luckily, because my family has never thrown out one single item ever since 1965 (see emotions #3 & #4), I've found some objects to distract me from the distress:The past week I have been doing some top-secret knitting with a yarn to which I have taken a Promise Keeper's monogamy pledge: Felted Tweed. I am seriously crushing on this yarn and have fallen hard for it. This isn't the first time I've used it but WOW am I having a hard time coming up with good reasons to ever knit with another yarn again.Aren't those colors kind of amazing together? I am knitting a Drive-Thru for a friend that just adopted an 18 month old. I made the pull-over before and am now trying my hand at the cardigan. The purling will likely cause me to bug, but I am trying a brand new gimmicky set of square needles--the Kollage needles--and I gotta say, they are unbelievably light and are thus making the job go that much quicker.

23 comments:

Yes, I can see how this knitting project is excellent therapy. Wow! What awesome colors. That's one thing I love about Rowan, even if they discontinue yarns and colors as fast as O goes through diapers. I hope things have gone well in MN. My lifelong goal is to overcome generations of packratitude. My dad's house is the same way.

I have been coveting Felted Tweed for two years now and haven't bit the bullet (I'm desperately trying to knit 20% of my stash. Which is...a lot.) But is that blackberry I see? My resolve just weakened...

I also love felted tweed. It goes really far too. I bought 10 balls in a sale, and only used 6 for a sweater, so I plan to get 4 in another colour and do a fair-isle jumper (next big hard difficult project).

Clearing out old homes = yep emotional roulette. Both my flatmate and I have had to do it with family in recent years, and it's a weird (but on balance: nice?) experience.

My mom got mad at me when I started pointing out things I wanted from her house. I thought it a compliment, but apparently - not so much. She looked at me and said, "I'll masking tape your name to the bottom of it!" I guess the up side is that you have so many treasures and memories to sort through. The downside... well, the same and then some. Beautiful color selection for the tweedy good sweater. The purling isn't so bad on a small sweater.

I've got a sweater's worth just waiting for me, too...can't wait. Love the photos of objects from your parents' house, too. My mother is very unsentimental, so the cool objects are few and far between. So, I lift old photographs instead. At least she still has those. But I can't let my sisters find out... ;)

NO WAY! I had THAT FROG as my one and only piggy bank. I believe it's in a box downstairs right now, and only didn't get handed down to a daughter because the plug was all degraded and didn't work. I've never seen it anywhere else...

Felted Tweed is great, isn't it? I knit a Harry Potter sweater for Son #1 with it and it knit up great. So soft and lightweight. Gotta get some more. Sorry about the house cleanout. I did that with my 4 siblings, which sure helped a lot. And mercifully, our parents were not packrats (unlike my husband and myself). I had the same teaset in the pictures!

My parents have lived in the same house since 1965 too. They keep everything. Except for the stuff they try to sell off every year in garage sales. Hasn't made a dent. I think they should put the house up for sale with all contents included(after I've gone thru it for treasures first of course) Grin!